Coming to you live, three feet from the log burner, it's a very chilly Betsy Benn!
I am, what my Mother used to call, a chilly mortal. I feel the cold when all around me are toasty and peeling off their jumpers, so expect to see me in beanie hats and scarves 24/7 until the crocuses appear. Luckily, I know some amazing small makers who make very beautiful and very comfy winter accessories (looking at you Eka Wear.)
Don't feel too sorry for me - I am, at heart, a winter babe. It's my birthday next month and I'm one of those people that wishes for snow at every opportunity. And of course "Christmas Food" is now firmly on the weekly menu, so it's all good!
How about you, are you in the wintery zone yet? Have the blankets and slippers come out to play?
October was all about the photoshoots at Betsy Benn. Good product photography is an absolute must for an online business and whilst I'm reasonably confident with a camera, it pays to get the professionals on board quite regularly for an update. We sent our new gingerbread decorations to the lovely Tina Knowles to shoot remotely, and I went in person to see Yeshen Venema's new studio space in Hackney for a whole day with styling by Emma Shipley. Here's a little BTS for you!
When we first sat down as a team to discuss product development this year (I think back in March) the gingerbread house came to the top of the list. There may have been the tiniest amount of eye-rolling from the team as this idea has been on the list for YEARS!
Occasionally, we talk about making a Christmas Eve House Box in a gingerbread style. Sometimes floating the idea of mini paper house boxes that can be filled with treats. But always we talk about developing a beautiful house decoration. And looking back through my design notebook, we've been doing that since 2016. The decoration you didn't know you'd been waiting almost 8 years for is finally here!
So much writing needs to happen this month! Newsletters, product descriptions, social media posts, and yes, blog posts like this one!
When I was (much) younger and wanted to revise for exams I had this bright idea that if I revised certain topics to certain music, I would just need to play that music back in my head and would automatically remember everything I'd revised. History's bed was the musical stylings of Skid Row ( I kid you not), Maths was serenaded by George Michael, and Geography got a bit of Paul Simon. Unfortunately, I now know every single word of those albums and remember nothing of the topics I was studying - so attuned am I to lyrics!
Fast forward to today and I cannot listen to anything with words whilst I'm writing. So on Spotify this month, I've mostly been listening to Max Richter. You'll recognise his work from films and TV I'm sure, and if you're diving in for the first time I highly recommend The Blue Notebooks.
Big love to all!
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